Keep Ext.HD on during sleep

[dalemeyn]

I would like to be able to “sleep” my iMac G5 iSight OS10.4.5 without the external FireWire HD spinning down. I have unchecked the “put hard disks to sleep when possible” box in Energy Saver, but the ext. HD spins down anyway, when the iMac goes to sleep. I'm not sure if the internal HD spins down or not during sleep, I can't hear it at any time. Is there a way to prevent this from happening? It is best not to have the HD turning on and off frequently, per OWC - In my usage, this happens 3-5 times a day. Presently, I leave the iMac running all day, with only the display "sleeping" during idle periods. I've no objection to this, except for the small drain on our nation's energy supply. BTW, I have found that the ext. HD does not spin down if the iMac is turned off via the iMac power button, but does if the iMac is shut down from Apple menu or via Energy Saver schedule. Weird. Dale Meyn.

 

[ra3ndy]

In the Energy Saver tab of System Preferences, set the "Put the computer to sleep when it is inactive for:" slider to Never, then uncheck the "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible" checkbox. You can leave the Display sleep option set.

That should do it for you.

 

[dalemeyn]

Hey, ra3ndy, I did all that, and it does OK, the HDs stay on when the display sleeps. But I wanted to let the whole computer sleep without shutting down the HDs. Probably wouldn't save much energy, since the drives are still spinnning, but every little bit helps save on oil imports. There might be some undocumented trick that someone knows to do it, that's why I opened this thread. Thanks. Dale.

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Anything other than a simple Display sleep will spin down the hard drives -- that's part of the "sleep" mode of the computer. You cannot sleep just certain devices and not other devices -- you must sleep the whole system, or not sleep it at all.

You can, though, make the hard drives spin down when the computer isn't asleep, which you found out. You can't do the other way around, though: you can't keep the internal hard drive(s) spinning while the system is asleep.

I think this is a function of FireWire -- mine do the same thing, but my USB 2.0 drives do not exhibit this behavior (although I have seen them do it on other systems).

 

[dalemeyn]

Anything other than a simple Display sleep will spin down the hard drives -- that's part of the "sleep" mode of the computer. You cannot sleep just certain devices and not other devices -- you must sleep the whole system, or not sleep it at all.

OK, looks like I'll have to just leave the iMac on all day, just sleeping the display. Probably wouldn't save much putting all but the HDs to sleep anyway. Dale.